OK, so I already have a number of piercings, industrial bar, 2 lobes, right nostril, right snug, right helix and right rook. I've had them all done by John at Body Designs, and that's just a trust thing. I hate needles and when you have someone like John, who's really pretty chill, it just makes it a little less bad.
At A Glance Author Alyssa Contact o0osnapitszlyss@aim.com When A year ago Artist John Studio Body Designs Location Bay Shore, NY At this time, however, I'd only had my industrial and 1st holes in my lobes and about a year after the industrial bar I had gotten that familiar itch, it's time for a new one. I searched BME for weeks until I decided on the rook, which seemed completely perfect, considering how pronounced mine is. So I went and did all that legal BS that the goddamn state of New York insists upon and notarized everything. And on 2/8/07 I was on my way to getting my adorable rook piercing.
I spent all of that day, which by the way was a Thursday, jittery and super-excited and just freaking out. I had dance till 8 so I figured that I would go right after dance. Leaving dance, I had butterflies like you couldn't believe and I just really wanted to get it over with.
I got there and John and I made our usual small talk while he got everything ready. He prepped my ear, but only after doing something I found somewhat weird at the time. He bent the needle till it resembled something like a fish hook. When I asked him why he was doing that, he told me because its a fairly larger piece of cartilage and the hole had to be curved to put in the ring. After that I closed my eyes and went through my whole piercing mantra, of saying shit shit shit shit omg omg omg omg what am i doing? and he lined up the needle and the popsicle stick under my ear (?) and I told him just to do it.
The first words out of my mouth when the needle was through was "that was it?" I was kinda disappointed in the lack of pain I was feeling when he put the needle through. I definitely felt it, but it was nothing to cry about. It was just an uncomfortable pressure and then it stung bad. After the needle comes the jewelry, of course, which always hurts just a little more than the rest of it, but even that was relatively painless. He did have trouble closing the ring, but its a really tiny CBR and he's got big hands, what are you gunna do?
It is within my experience to say that when the piercing process itself is painful, most of the time it heals well, but when it is painless, the healing will suck, and my rook was no exception to that rule. I am almost too careful when it comes to my piercings and I treat them all as if they are my children. I clean them regularly with H2Ocean, which I swear by, it is amazing, because it combines the whole sea salt soak and cleaning into one cute little bottle. I'm a big fan of warm compresses as well, though. So my cleaning regimen was 2 warm compresses and 3 sea salt sprays, along with regular turning of the hoop every day. For the first month or so, the piercing was very well-behaved. Around Christmas-time the little bastard decided to become infected. It would bleed at random times and I, being the idiot I was, decided to ice it,on more than one occasion, now this should NEVER be done as it makes your hole dilate and just makes it that much harder for the ring to move. Now that I'm slightly more educated on piercing aftercare, most of which I've pulled from this site, I've found the LITHA (Leave It The Hell Alone) or LITFA (for the slightly more vulgar) methods to be the best in aiding the healing of a fresh piercing. If you don't touch the piercing unless it's being cleaned, then there's less of a chance of putting foreign germs from your hand into the hole. And please, I know it sounds like common sense, but wash your hands before cleaning a piercing, you know where your hands have been and I doubt you're gunna want half those places in a newly pierced hole.
The infection lasted from Christmas till Easter and finally, with a lot of coaxing and TLC, calmed itself down. Now, even after all the anguish it put me through, I love my rook and wouldn't trade it for all the piercings in the whole world.
If you're thinking about a rook, I'd say go for it, it hurts for a while, but with a little persistence and a lot of ibuprofen, you'll be fine.
Good luck and Happy Piercing!!